Got up in good time, 9:00 :-) and left the hostel as soph wasn't too keen on it. Wandered to town, and I almost left my passport in the old hostel!! But remembered just in time!
Got into town at 10 and asked if they had availability in a different hostel, they did, but no check in until 11.
So hunted down some snorkels and got a quad bike for the day.
Checked into our hostel at 11ish, then me and soph headed out on the quad. Drove some crazy roads, mad steep and dirt tracks with large rocks and river tracks running through, got pretty intense at times, especially as I haven't ridden a quad in 10 years or something!!
Headed over the island and found an amazing place, no useable beach, just rocks, but I finally managed to use a snorkel (mum, I'm so sorry you were totally right, it's amazing!!). Amazing coral and fish, were there for hours and could've easily stayed longer, but we wanted to explore.
Had some lunch then back to town to refill on gas, then headed back for a different bay. Went the wrong way at first and ended up on a mega steep rutted track, basically impassible to us on the best possible vehicle for the conditions (quad bike), quickly realised we'd gone slightly wrong so turned around, this is when a local on a s***ty moped easily zoomed past us on this ridiculous road!!
Found the way again and got to the other bay, not quite as good, had a fancy resort on the waterfront. At first I thought it was barren for sea life but realised it was all just much deeper than the other bay. So had a good time diving down to inspect the fish, and even had a free fish doctor!
Left at 5 as I didn't want to drive the crazy roads past dark, and headed to a viewpoint (cover pic). Such an incredible view and a great little bar place up there :-).
Took the quad back at 7:30ish, then back to the hostel. Headed out for dinner with 9 people from the hostel, got some money out (I was completely dry by now) and headed out.
Went to a bar/resort place on the beach, had a few drinks, even got a free bucket for jumping in the pool (I was wearing swimming shorts anyway!).
The fire guys let me use their poi :-D although I wasn't doing so well today. But real nice guys, even gave me some coaching on a move (I didn't quite get it, but much closer now, gotta practice tomorrow) and let me practice with their poi for ages.
After I'd given up I went back to our table (with people from the hostel), and was fiddling with a bit of bottle spinning, one of the Thai poi guys (called james) came up to me and asked me to teach him the spinning (I'm amazed he wasn't way better than me, but had clearly never even seen it before). Ended up telling me that he works from 6 at that bar place, and if I came back tomorrow he'd do some poi with me (he was very specific to say he wouldn't teach, just have a play, but I know I could learn a lot from it). Hopefully it'll work out that I can do that tomorrow, as they are amazing and I'd love to learn some of their tricks.
Headed to bed at 1ish, planning to get a boat taxi out to a nearby island for the day tomorrow which apparently has amazing snorkelling and will be a good chance to brush up on poi skills!